The present disclosure relates generally to athletic and sports training equipment, and more particularly to interactive and user-configurable apparatus that cue a trainee to act, time the response of the trainee or otherwise keep score of correct actions, and determine the validity of the response.
Team sports are widely popular throughout the world, with perhaps the most popular sport being soccer, or football/futbol as it is referred to in other countries. Although team sports require team participation, individual performance is also important for players to contribute to team efforts. In a conventional training regimen players typically train together, performing both team and individual drills that focus on various skills used in the sport. However, without equipment to aid in training, the types of drills and skill techniques that can be practiced by an individual is limited.
Conventional training equipment tends to operate in a manner that results in very repetitive and limited, often by design to force a person to focus on a particular movement or skill. In team sports the conditions during a game or match can be very dynamic, and require the ability of the players to adjust to the conditions, and adjust their technique, as well as make quick judgments about how to best proceed. This type of skill is not well trained by conventional training apparatus that focus on a particular technique, and very often the only way a player can practice under those kinds of conditions is to actually participate in a live team activity.
Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that athletic training can be augmented by coupling it with cognitive exercises, where, in addition to performing physical techniques, the trainee is also required to perform mental tasks unrelated to the athletic training. It is believed that such cognitive activity performed in conjunction with athletic training can enhance a trainee's ability to think strategically and recognize opportunities during athletic matches and contests.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for a modular, scalable system that allows a user to configure interaction parameters such as cue time, randomness, duration, data collection of the results to allow a single player to practice the kinds of skills need for applying more basic skills during a live, dynamic sporting event without actually having a team of players, and to further present cognitive challenges during training unrelated to the training techniques to enhance cognitive abilities of trainees and players.
Those skilled in the field of the present disclosure will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. The details of well-known elements, structure, or processes that would be necessary to practice the embodiments, and that would be well known to those of skill in the art, are not necessarily shown and should be assumed to be present unless otherwise indicated.